September 24, 2014

Behead the beast of perpetual war

by Diane V. McLoughlin - September 24, 2014Two essentials necessary, for both armies and uprisings, to advance, are arms and cash. The U.S. has just authorized 500 milion dollars-worth of training and weapons for Syrian rebels and the wisdom of doing so must be questioned.Certainly American 'PNAC' neocons want to keep arming so-called 'good' rebels to help them overthrow Syria's government. The U.S. should not be involved with the attempt at overthrowing Syria's secular regime, and the reasons for wanting to do so must be questioned, as well. Why would U.S. interests be keen? Who profits?Israel continues to illegally occupy Syrian territory, and has recently put out tenders for oil exploration contracts on the occupied Golan Heights. (How about Gaza? Does Gaza have natural resources, too? Check - Gaza has a territorial stake in the vast wealth of off-shore natural gas.) What seems a fairly predictable eventuality may have come to pass: The Syrian rebels reportedly have agreed to a ceasefire with ISIS(also known, variously, as Isil; Is, or Islamic State) circumstances in which you cannot expect arms provided to one will be used to degrade the military capabilities of the other. Nevertheless, U.S. pro-war cheerleaders such as U.S. Senator John McCain, assert that they can tell the 'good' guys from the bad in the quest topump more U.S.-manufactured arms in. Profitable, yes. Potential pots of gold at the ends of various political rainbows, no doubt. There are pictures purportedly showing McCain hobnobing with ISIS rebels. Some pundits are rubbing their hands with glee at the karma, that McCain may ultimately find himself charged with the crime of aiding terrorists.Iraq and Syrian oil that ISIS is reportedly selling on the global black market also keeps ISIS in arms and other necessary supplies, in addition to Syrian rebel-held American weaponry somehow being added to their arsenals. Looting,including banks, keeps their conquest going, too. Bombing campaigns are destructive, rather indiscriminate, and they make more enemies. This is not the answer to ISIS so far as western strategic interests are concerned, if we actually are concerned with not stirring a terrorism hornet's nest any further than we have already. Cut off the flow of arms and cash and frustrate supply lines, instead. As for beheadings, Saudi Arabia, treated as one of the good guys and part of the ad hoc coalition fighting ISIS, has had something like 41 beheadings as judicial punishments this year alone - the country where the 9/11 terrorists came from. So ISIS utilizing the violent propaganda tool of beheading innocent people might be viewed in a wider context. Our own political leaders garner political traction with the ISIS beheadings, as well.Bombing ISIS targets legitimates their propaganda that 'the west' is the enemy.